Selling Coins....price?

The following is good news and bad news.
The real problem here is that there are many, many different price guides for coins. Remember, there is no manufacturer's suggested price on coins. Even with other items like a car, when you go to sell one, buyers use a large variety of price guidese.
Another problem with selling coins is different dealers will pay you different amounts for many, not all, coins.
Next there is the problem of what you are trying to sell. For example a completed Album of Lincoln Cents contains numerous coins that even in MS grades are just not worth a lot when selling. Such a set contains only a few of the so called valuable coins as far as a dealer is concerned. They well know that most will just not sell well so they are not willing to spend a lot of money on those.
Now the worst part. Your talking about a coin store. The dealer at that place probably has that as his income. Meaning the profits go to pay for his rent, if renting, the place he lives, food for his family, the electric, gas, water and phone bills. Next he also must pay for advetising, showroom cases, gas for his car and on and on. ALL such expenses must come from the sale of coins and/or coin type items. This is why so many coin store owners end up selling numerous other items to help pay for all those bills.
Sorry, but this is a hobby, not an investment. I know like many others, you too thought I have a lot of money right here and I'll just use it for a nice retirement portfolio. It does't work that way with a hobby. So many people have invested in their hobbies and at one time hope to get a large cash back from it all.
Sort of like the people that have flying model planes as a hobby. When they crash, now what?
OH, the good news. You have something to hand down to relatives. Let them worry about value.

Carl, If you can take a half decent photo why not sell for yourself on ebay

AND it could have been worse. Many coin shops, not all, are real cut throat types. By that I mean if you didn't know what you had, your offer could have been 25% or less. I know of one coin store where I saw them offer $5 per roll of Indian Head Nickels to an elderly lady. And she told them all were like new. They opened the roll and she was right. Still they offered her practically nothing and she took that possibly never knowing.
Due to you knowing what you had and they may have actually known you, your offer of about 50% wasn't that unusal.
If you have time, do as so many others due and use ebay. May take you some time but lots better than 50%.

to CCF and 45 years, WOW!

Coin dealers range all over the place, so if you have more than one or two in your area, or live near a large city, you may be able to find a dealer that's not out to take your collection for the lowest price possible. I was very lucky to find a great coin dealer in Dallas that not only bought and sold at prices that were reasonable, but he and his partner were willing to help me learn what was junk and what would make money over time.

Also keep in mind that if you have some very rare or Mint State coins, you can check with dealers online or the bigger coin auction houses like Heritage, Stack's and so on. I've bought and sold on Heritage and TeleTrade and made money on both, but everyone wants a different cut of the final value of your coin so do your research.

As others are saying, it's hard to price coins. I use ebay to sell most of my coins, but I check PCGS and NGC for an idea of the best price first.

Then I go to ebay and use the advanced search feature to see what coins like mine have sold for recently. If the price looks good, I try to sell it for a few dollars more than the other coins that are selling, but less than the coins that priced too high and the seller is just listing them over and over.

Keep in mind that ebay fees take 10% with a limit of $250 on each coin and the prefered payment method, PayPal will want to get a cut also of 2.9% +.30 cents on each sale. You are protected by ebay and PayPal if someone tries to pull something on you and cheat you out of your money and it happens all the time.

The only other thing is shipping cost. I ship padded envelopes with the coin in a cardboard flip, a protective layer of cardboard taped over each side and I insure the item for the winning bid price so I don't end up refunding the buyer all of his money and getting back a damaged coin.

Only you know how much you've invested in the coin, so if you can get a price you want that's going to cover the 12.5% in fees and depending on how you want to ship, the buyer can pay or you can pay for shipping.

If you try ebay, start with the lowest price coins and learn all you can about the way ebay works so you don't cost yourself more than the 50% you were offered by the coin shop.

The strange thing is that you can list an item on ebay and it may not get even one bid. Then relist it the next week at the same or even a higher price and it will sell.

When a collector finds a coin he likes, sometimes the "real" value doesn't seem to matter to them.

I sell error and variety coins. I listed a "mushroom" cent. I listed it for sale at $75 and not one buyer even watched the auction. So I took a new set of photos and they were some of the most detailed shots of a coin I ever took.

I did more research on the coin and learned that what I thought was the reverse of another coin pressed into the obverse of the coin was the reverse showing through because the coin was spread so wide that the center was about as thin as possible.

I relisted the coin at $450 and was offered $350. Needless to say, I sold the coin. If you would like to see it, check out this thread. It has the photos. https://goccf.com/t/89904&SearchTer...m,error,cent

My point it if you can take less that the research you do on the coin and still make the money you want, it can't hurt to try and sell it. If you think you can sell it for more, add a bit to the price. And remember, all you need it one buyer that wants your coin and thinks that the price is right.

That was a total fluke and I'm lucky it didn't sell the first time.

You know that 50% is too low for your collection. You just need to figure out the lowest price you'll take and remember that it's going to take some work, research and the best photos you can post.

Almost all of the time some one wants the coins you have to sell. You just need to make them look as good as possible. Describe them exactly and price them at the price you think they will sell.

When it all comes together, you're happy, the buyer is happy and someone gets richer off of every coin you sell on ebay.

Good luck with your sales and if you really don't have to sell the coins to take the cruise, DON'T rush to sell them and end up kicking yourself later for taking less than you feel you could have.

It like any investment. One day you can sell every coin you want and make a good price doing it, but all it takes is the wrong timing and you can't get even the 50% you were offered.

I hope I've said something that helps.

Ben

Please Note: I'm in no way an expert. I just love buying and selling coin and for some reason I've always had very good luck making money on my coins. The few I've sold for less than I paid are more than made up by my timing on buying and selling at 2 or 3 times the price I paid within a few months. I don't know why, but I've been very lucky and I DO know that could end at any time.